Serena made two errors and dropped serve to fall behind 4-2 in the third set. Venus, who dropped serve only once in the match, served for the win at 5-3. Venus hit a rocket serve on her third match point that Serena returned into the net. Serena had 19 aces and nine double faults, and Venus had six aces and two doubles faults.

Serena was coming off a victory last week in Stanford, California, in her first tournament since withdrawing from a doubles match at Wimbledon because of equilibrium problems.

Venus will face third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in the final after the former Wimbledon runner-up beat Ekaterina Makarova 7-6(1) 7-6(3).